Letters for Tuesday, March 3

Baumgartner isn’t actually helping our ag community

Eastern Washington farmers deserve more than praise on the House floor or in the local newspapers. They deserve policies that actually protect their markets and livelihoods.

Over the past year, farmers across Washington – including in the eastern half of our state – have been caught in the middle of a tariff roller coaster that has harmed exports and destabilized prices. Retaliatory tariffs tied to Trump-era trade actions have slashed demand for U.S. agricultural products, including Washington apples, cherries, wheat, hay and lentils. When export markets become unpredictable, crops don’t magically find new buyers. In some cases, they sit in storage or spoil while growers absorb the losses.

According to agricultural groups and reporting across our region, these trade disruptions have meant lower prices, canceled orders, and mounting uncertainty for family farms already dealing with rising fuel, fertilizer and labor costs. Some growers have watched crops rot or go unharvested because export channels were disrupted and domestic markets couldn’t absorb the surplus.

If we truly want to support Eastern Washington agriculture, we must recognize that chaotic trade policy hurts farmers. Stable markets matter. Reliable international relationships matter. And thoughtful federal policy matters.

It’s not enough for Rep. Baumgartner to praise farm families or hold meetings. Our agricultural community needs consistent advocacy for trade policies that keep markets open, prices stable, and crops moving – not policies that leave farmers paying the price for political brinkmanship.

Eastern Washington farmers don’t need rhetoric. They need results.

Elisanne McCutchen

Spokane

Idaho HB 693 is deeply offensive

House Bill 693, relating to concealing, harboring and shielding aliens, will soon be before the Idaho House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee.

This draconian bill criminalizes aid to undocumented individuals. It provides not only misdemeanor convictions but felony convictions, loss of business licenses and vehicle seizure.

The violent, out-of-control immigration raids in Minneapolis and elsewhere have thrown citizens as well as both documented and undocumented people, including children, into filthy overcrowded detention centers without due process of law.

The appearance of this godforsaken bill before the Idaho Legislature begs us to take a long hard look at history.

In Nazi Germany they criminalized rendering aid to Jews, Roma and other so-called undesirables which they were rounding up and sending to concentration camps.

Let that sink in.

Undocumented immigrants are human beings.

Many times, the only difference in legal status is access to an immigration hearing in a court of law which can take years with our screwed-up system. In the meantime, this bill is deeply, deeply offensive to every moral fiber in my being.

I quote the Gospel: “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Karen M. Hansen

Viola, Idaho

Washington retirees covering the costs

I am a Plan 1 retiree who has had three small cost -of -living raises in the last 14 years. I’m about 40% behind in COLA raises compared to what Washington state Plan 2 and 3 retirees and state employees have had in the same timeline.

The claim by the elected lawmakers is that they needed the money to balance the state budget. The thing about the COLAs we were denied: Numerous Plan 1 retirees have turned to Medicare and Medicaid to live. In the long run, this is costing the state more money from a different part of the budget. This year, the Plan 1 retirees are going to pay for the highway and property damages from the winter floods.

In the last 11 years, my rent has gone from $1,600 per month to $3,700 a month. Also, our retirees have to pay for the added costs of food and medical supplies. How many Plan 1 retirees are choosing between food or medications? Less medication means more trips to the ER and hospital stays that the hospital or DSHS can pay for?

How many more years will we live? It will be shortened with the help of the Washington state Legislature.

Lawrence Eriksen

Wenatchee